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Year End Goals Recap

Ah yes, time to recap my goals for the year. I’m tempted to give myself a bigger window of time in which to finish these goals (mainly barn improvement) since I didn’t make them until March and it hasn’t been a full year yet.

The Goals:

Healthy Horses

Barn Improvement

Breed Paige

Potential Limited Showing (dependent on funds)

Hand grazing in the field full of groundhog holes and brush piles that include random hunks of old fence. #notshowing

Yup. Feel free to laugh with me over those last three. Cackle eccentrically even. My attempt (solid though it was) at breeding Paige was such a miserable failure that it zapped any budget for the other two items.

To recap further: I had a shipment sent from CA to have my vet inseminate Paige with. I hauled her to his farm an hour away, left her for a few days, where she came in heat and behaved beautifully for all of her handling/procedures. Good Paige. Womp womp. She wasn’t pregnant when we checked her. Not so super unusual, so I ordered another round and opted to just have my vet come to the farm for her ultrasounds, etc. since the cost of fuel/hassle of hauling ended up being worse than paying the trip fee for the appointments. Once again, Paige was her charming self and stood perfectly for all of the shenanigans. Then, once again, she wasn’t bred when we checked her. So I whined, beat my head against the wall, and agreed readily when A suggested that we breed her to Copper’s half brother via live cover. So I loaded Paige up again, hauled her to a friend’s farm where she stayed for a week and seduced everything with eyes (including a random gelding through his stall wall when she managed to get loose one day…ha.). She was easily the most popular girl on the farm in the eyes of the two Appaloosa studs she met (only one that she actually met if you get my drift). But despite the best efforts by Paige and Oliver (and of my charming friends who played match makers in the round pen) still no baby. I have since given up, paid my vet bill in full, and started drooling over baby horses on the internet. Hold me back.

nomnomnom haybaby.

Obviously this completely derailed the possibility of showing, which didn’t devastate me too much since the local show series ended up cancelling two (I think) of their shows this year because of rain. I can’t miss it if it was cancelled, right? (This is not the same as not missing the baby horse I don’t have since it wasn’t conceived…that logic doesn’t work here unfortunately).

Barn improvements were high on the priority list in theory. It’s all well and good until you owe your vet a pile of money for something you chose to do. We did manage to get the barn opened up and I. LOVE. IT. It feels so bright and roomy even when it is dark outside since there are fewer shadows from the big lights in the barn. I was stuffing Copper’s hay bags the other night and contemplating how lucky I am to have a big, dry, well lit place to take care of my four legged kids. Copper was standing in the center of the barn eating his grain in what feels like full daylight despite the fact that it was 6pm and pitch black outside. So even though I got little done in the way of barn improvements, they will happen in time, and we have all of the necessities until then. Some little things may happen soon, like moving the light switch for all the interior lights in the barn to the end that we actually enter the barn instead of having to walk the length of the barn in the dark to turn on the lights. It is a small change, but one that needs to happen.

Old wall on left.

Absence of old wall…

New wall. Progress.

I’m reluctant to say this since I may jinx myself, but the healthy horses bit has been the most successful of goals this year. Paige did slingshot herself over that gate, but outside of routine vaccinations and lots of OBGYN visits for Paigey, I haven’t had the vet out once. *KNOCKS ON WOOD!* Keep in mind that even includes the boarder mares. Crazy, right? We did have some laminitic soreness from the donkeys, mainly Chloe, but the vet looked at it when he was here for Paige one day, and it was resolved with diet changes, so I’ll take that as a success.

Another possible success is adding Russell to the herd. Provided Copper hasn’t killed him since last night. Copper is living with the donkeys currently to maximize his hay intake. Russell tends to push his luck with Copper, but so far my giant boy has been maintaining his composure with Russell. When spring hits we’ll know how successful Russell’s time has been with us. I’m hoping for baby donkeys in fall, so hopefully the girls won’t come in heat this spring.

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Hi, I’m Sarah and I own a farm in rural SWVA where I board a couple horses and keep my small (but growing) herd. I use this space to chronicle my life with my four legged friends, both equine and canine and am glad to have you tune in! :)

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Paige is my most reliable mount. She is a 18 year old American Quarter horse. She is the mother of my APHA colt by Hollywood Reminic and the reason I still enjoy horses.

Joey is a 2017 dunskin gelding by Hollywood Reminic and out of my AQHA mare, Paige. I am very lucky to have this little guy to bring along and I look forward to the journey. He continues to exceed my expectations in both personality and ability.

Copper is an 11 year old Appaloosa who is remarkably versatile, but is unfortunately out of work for the foreseeable future due to lameness. We fought Lyme disease in 2016/2017 and in spring of 2018 he was diagnosed with navicular syndrome in both front feet.

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